4/10/2012 10:43 AM PDT

"Celebrity Apprentice" star Dayana Mendoza is firing back at Lisa Lampanelli ... claiming Lisa insulted an "entire Hispanic culture" when she called the beauty queen a "sp*c" during a radio interview.

It all went down last month when Lampanelli appeared on Sirius XM and said, "I actually would love to see [Dayana] giving birth. She’s a sp*c! She’s going to do it f**king soon, anyway. She’ll be knocked up before the end of the week.”

Now, Dayana is speaking out about the racial slur ... telling the Huffington Post, "I understand that it's Lisa's job to make fun of people for a living. If poking fun at me can help her sell tickets to her shows, no problem, I am happy to help her put food on her table. However, when she uses racial slurs, she is not only targeting myself but degrading an entire Hispanic culture."